Reflections on a Faux-Scandal from the Creator of The Wire

David Simon, the creator and head writer for the HBO series The Wire, has written one of the most cogent responses to what he sees as hyperbolic reports in the media about the NSA Intercepts.

He writes:

Having labored as a police reporter in the days before the Patriot Act, I can assure all there has always been a stage before the wiretap, a preliminary process involving the capture, retention and analysis of raw data. It has been so for decades now in this country. The only thing new here, from a legal standpoint, is the scale on which the FBI and NSA are apparently attempting to cull anti-terrorism leads from that data. But the legal and moral principles? Same old stuff.

Read it here.